Charlotte Audrey Payne Oswald

Charlotte Audry Payne Oswald is the daughter of John Robert Oswald and Hannah Lark Bensley, both of England. The Oswald family immigrated from England to America on the ship “Colorado.” After arriving in America, they traveled west to Nebraska where they joined the Daniel D. McArthur Company bound for the Great Salt Lake Valley. The Company left Nebraska on August 14, 1868.

One day before entering the Salt Lake Valley, little Charlotte passed away and was buried in Coalville one the Mormon Trail (according to her father’s history).

Over one hundred years later, notes recorded by William Duncan Oswald says: “Charlotte was buried in Coalville near the high school. To add to that information, in the fall of 2004, a construction crew dug up the graves of 5 individuals on the High School property. One of the individuals matches Charlotte at the time of her death in age and sex although no other markings were found. These five were reburied and a monument erected to them in the Coalville City Cemetery. The only way to confirm that the little girl under that monument is Charlotte would be to exhume her a second time and do DNA testing.”

Magnusson Hannum